Doctor Whooves Classic: The Five Doctors

by Tragicom

Chapter Eleven

As Five and Borusa appeared in Rassilon's Tomb, the companions and Doctors were having a lively chat. Including Caramel and Susan, who had brough the TARDIS into the tomb.

Bon Bon walked over. "Doctor, are you okay?"

"Silence, child!" Borusa proclaimed. "You are within my power. All of you are within my power!"

The pink gems on the Coronet of Rassilon began to glow once more, and the companions were forced down to the ground. The Doctors held firm, however.

"Thank you, gentlecolts," Borusa said, "You have served your purpose beautifully."

"So you were the one who brought us here?" Three clarified.

"He's clearly after the Ring of Rassilon," Two exclaimed, "He wants immortality all to himself!"

"And you thought nothing was wrong," Three deadpanned.

"He's a renegade," One began, "no better than Koschei."

The Master, still awake mind you, rolled his eyes.

"We won't let you," Two declared.

"This Tomb was sealed away with the best of intentions in mind," Three added.

"And once we return to our own personal time streams," One finished, "it shall be sealed away permanantly!"

Borusa grit his teeth. The pink gems began to glow again. The Doctors began to be forced back, but they stood firm.

"Doctor, we need your help!" Two called out.

"Fight it, dear boy!" One shouted. "Concentrate!"

The first three Doctors concentrated, and their eyes began to glow. Five's eyes began to glow as well. With their telepathic link fully established, The Doctors psychically forced Borusa into a wall. As Five's eyes returned to normal, the sand in his hourglass cutie mark returned to the bottom half.

Five took his place with his other selves. "It's over Borusa. With all of us together, you can't possibly succeed!"

Borusa stood back up. "You fools! Even if there were a dozen of you, the Coronet of Rassilon would give me more than enough power to out-will you!"

"Maybe so," Five countered, "but Chancellor Flavia is on to you now. Do you think you can overcome the entirety of the guard and the High Council?"

"I won't have to, Doctor!" Borusa yelled, "I am Lord President of Gallopfrey! Do you think that they will take your word over mine?"

"I HAVE HEARD ENOUGH!!!"

The Time Lords began to look around the room for the origin of the booming voice.

"I HAVE WATCHED YOUR COMPETITION FOR SOME TIME NOW, BUT IT IS CLEAR TO ME THAT THIS GAME MUST END."

"Rassilon," One whispered.

The flames from the pots that the statues were holding began to rise and coalesce in the middle of the room. The fire merged into the shape into a stallion that was at least three times the size of anypony else in the room. As the flames died down, an alicorn appeared in their stead. This alicorn had a coat of emerald green, with a golden mane and tail that flowed like water. Within his mane, stars could be seen being formed and entering supernova. His horn was sharp as a dagger, and his wings were truly a masterpiece to behold. Upon his flanks there was the image of an antique grandfather clock.

Upon hearing his voice, a practitioner of Royal Canterlot voice would be deafened.

"WHO DARES TO DISTURB MY SLUMBER?"

"It is I, my lord," Borusa responded, bowing in deference. "I am Borusa. Lord President of Gallopfrey."

"HAVE YOU COME SEEKING IMMORTALITY?"

"Yes, oh wise one," Borusa replied.

"DO YOU PERMIT THIS?" Rassilon asked, turning to The Doctors.

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"You cannot allow this!"

"Don't listen to them, Rassilon!" One shouted over the others. The other Doctors turned to him like he was insane.

"YOU BELIEVE HIM TO BE WORTHY?"

"Indeed I do." One smirked.

"VERY WELL." A ring of fire appeared before Rassilon, and became a silver clasp, roughly around the size one would need to wear around their forehoof. "IF YOU WILL NOT TURN BACK, THEN TAKE THE RING OF RASSILON."

Borusa grinned maniacally. This was it! He had won! He took the Ring from the alicorn, and placed it upon his right foreleg. A golden energy began to surge through Borusa's body. A burning pain filled his body, and a horn burst out from his forehead! Wings then sprouted out of his back, and Borusa's manic cackling filled the room.

"This is it!" he proclaimed. "I am Borusa the Eternal! I am the alicorn! I am a God!"

"YES. YOU ARE AN ALICORN. JUST AS IS EVERY OTHER PONY WHO HAS REQUESTED THIS PRIZE FROM ME." Rassilon replied with a wicked grin of his own.

Suddenly, the statues around the room changed color. The once pale gray of the stone turned to that of flesh, and their eyes began to dart around the room. The room filled with a moaning sound of terror. Suddenly everything began to become clear.

Realization dawned on Five. "The other players. Statues."

"STATUES THAT SHALL STAND UNTIL THE END OF TIME," Rassilon clarified.

The implications then hit Borusa like a ton of bricks. "No," he whispered. His coat began to turn a crusty slate color, and he suddenly found it difficult to move. Borusa's eyes filled with desperation and terror.

The Doctors and their companions looked on, horror-struck. There was absolutely nothing they could do to stop his, and they frankly didn't want to.

Borusa's petrification was complete.

Rassilon's golden mane wrapped around the statue, and placed it with the others. Rassilon then conjured a pot for it to hold.

Borusa was now unidentifiable from the others, but his life would never cease. Forever conscious, forever looking upon this empty room, forever holding a pot containing the Fires of Rassilon.

Immortality at its finest.

The alicorn then turned to the others.

"AND WHAT OF YOU, DOCTORS? DO YOU ALSO SEEK IMMORTALITY?"

The Doctors didn't even have to think about it. "No, no, no no no! No, no, no no!"

"We're fine, we're fine!" Two shouted.

"Yes," Five said, gathering himself. "We only wish to be returned to our proper times."

"VERY WELL."

"One of us is trapped in a Time Eddy with a friend of ours," Five explained.

"THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN FREED."

Meanwhile in Historic Canterbridge...

Four and Colgate rematerialized in mid-air, and promptly dropped into the river.

The two then popped their heads above the water.

"Do you get the feeling that we just missed out on something really important?" Colgate asked.

Meanwhile in Rassilon's Tomb...

Rassilon turned to The Master. "THIS RENEGADE SHALL BE RETURNED TO HIS TARDIS. HE SHALL PAY FOR HIS SINS IN HIS OWN TIME."

The Master disappeared.

"FAREWELL, DOCTORS. YOU HAVE CHOSEN WISELY."

Rassilon returned to the form of a mass of fire, and returned to the pots.

One began to chuckle to himself.

"Did you know that would happen?" Five asked.

"Of course!" One replied. "'To lose is to win, and he who wins loses!' Rassilon knew that immortality was just as much a blessing as a curse, and wanted to weed out the greedy fools."

"Well, I suppose it's time to say goodbye," Five muttered. "A pity. I was just getting to know me."

"So you're the latest model, eh?" Two asked.

"And certainly the most agreeable," Five snarked.

"Quite clearly the most impudent," Three corrected.

"And the celery is an indicator that my dress sense hasn't improved," Two said, hitting two birds with one stone.

One shook his head. "And it is clear that my manners are long since gone. Still, I enjoyed this thoroughly. I'm very happy to see that my future is bright."

The other three smiled.

Susan walked over to the crochety, old stallion. "Goodbye, Grandpa."

The other three joined in simultaneous speech once more. "Goodbye, my dear."

One and his granddaughter faded away.

"Well, I suppose I'm next," Two announced. "Come along, Captain. Can't be late for your party."

"I'll be there shortly, by the way." Twilight said.

"Looking forward to it, Twily." Shining replied. The Captain turned to the other two Doctors. "Great to see you. All of you."

"Farewell, you old scarecrow!" Two shot at Three.

Three smirked. "Make your jokes, but you'll be me soon enough."

Two and Shining dissapated before he could make a witty comeback.

"Well, Miss Sparkle," Three began, "I do believe I've had the time of my lives."

"I'll stick to the one, Doctor." Twilight replied. She turned to the cricketeer. "It was nice meeting you.

"Nice meeting you, too." Three joked.

Twilight indulged in a small giggle before she and the dandy faded.

Five then turned to Caramel and Bon Bon. "I'm not the stallion I used to be. Thank goodness."

"So will we fade, too?" Bon Bon asked.

"Of course not. We have the TARDIS now." Five replied.

Suddenly Flavia teleported into the room with a small number of guards at her side. "Doctor, what happened here? Where is Lord President Borusa?"

"Well," Five said, "let's just say that the legends about Rassilon were true."

"I suppose your report can be part of your inaugural address." Flavia figured.

"What?"

"Borusa's disappearance leaves an empty place in the hierarchy," she explained, "You've saved us enough times to prove you're the only reasonable choice as the next Lord President."

"What?"

"You must feel incredibly honored. This is the highest honor anypony on Gallopfrey could ask for."

"WHAT?!"

Five began to breathe heavily. Lord President? He had to think quickly. "Yes, well, umm..." He turned to Caramel and Bon Bon, and a lightbulb went off. "Yes! Yes! Thank you! It is an honor, and I am more than happy to accept."

"That's wonderful!" Flavia replied.

"But of course," Five said, smoothly, "Now, I'm going to have to drop my companions off back home first. Until I get back, I give you full deputy powers."

"But Doctor," she started.

"Ah! That's Lord President Doctor," he countered. "Come along, you two."

The three ponies walked into the Doctor's TARDIS. The familiar dematerialization sound went off, and the Police Barn disappeared.

Flavia pondered this for a moment. Lord President Flavia?

She liked it!

Meanwhile in the TARDIS...

The Doctor flipped a few switches, while Caramel and Bon Bon wore dejected looks upon their face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, you're off to Gallopfrey to be Lord President," Caramel muttered, "and now we're never going to see you again."

"We'll miss you, Doctor." Bon Bon said, fighting back tears.

"What makes you think I'm going back to Gallopfrey?" he wondered.

"But Flavia-" Bon Bon started.

"Has deputy powers until I return. Who knows how long that could be?" he replied.

"You're not going to go back?!" Bon Bon asked.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," The Doctor joked.

"Won't they be mad at you?" Caramel pointed out.

"Oh, furious!" he clarified.

"So you're going on the run from your own people in a ramshackle old time machine that barely works?" Bon Bon asked.

The Doctor smiled. "Why not? That's how it all started."

THE END

Special Thanks To:

Lauren Faust

Bonnie Zacherle

Sydney Newman

Russell T. Davies

Steven Moffat

Tara Strong et. al

All Eleven Doctors

Richard Hurndall

Lissy-Strata on DeviantArt

and All My Fans

Next Time:

The Seventh Doctor and Firefly in...

The Happiness Patrol

Author's Note:

Thank you, everyone, for sticking by me. Keep your eyes peeled for The Happiness Patrol, coming soon.

Comments

[average braeburn enjoyer]

An amazing story, just like the original. I saw it ages ago, and was thinking about getting a copy to watch it. Really glad I didn't now, this was like my first time seeing it. Great casting choice, good description, and you wrote the Doctors so well sometimes I felt like I was reading an official story.

But, Firefly as Ace? Dis gon be gud.

[BenRG]

I always felt that the end of The Five Doctors was a bit weak. It wasn't Rassilon's trap; I thought that was a nice bit of "be careful what you wish for" and fits in with this implication that Rassilon was a very nasty piece of work in his own right. The weak part is Rassilon needing the Doctors' approval to proceed and One seeming to know something the others don't. No matter how hard I try, it didn't seem to match up with the whole point of Borusa's quest to win the Game - that it was this achievement on which Rassilon would judge him, not others' opinions. The only explanation that I can come up with was that it was a rather flat-footed attempt to impress on the viewer that One was somehow wiser than his regenerations (though why that was necessary or even a credible escapes me). If anything, it would have been more realistic for Five, who had been the one to unmask Borusa, who might have a better idea of what Rassilon was offering.

So, this was a well-written ponification of the story but, because of its very nature it shares the failures of the original. This isn't your fault; I thought this was well-written but you had to remain true to your source material.

[_CheckMate_]

2097374
also, wouldn't the other three (2,3,5) have remembered the encounter and therefore remembered what was going on? or was their personal timeline re-written afterwards?
(also, i'm a modern whovian, haven't seen the old doctors but am considering it)

[BenRG]

2097437

You're correct - as they were isolated from the time stream, everything that happened in the Death Zone was a 'special case' that didn't exist in the later regenerations' past (yet). That still didn't explain why One should know something or be able to deduce something that Two through Five didn't and so that scene rang somewhat false for me.

[_CheckMate_]

2097448
ahh, that makes sense then. also agree that someone other than one would have figured it out

[Tragicom]

2097448
My interpretation as to that was that One is supposed to be the wisest of The Doctors. In The Three Doctors, he's the one that Two and Three defer to, so his judgement and problem-solving ability is somewhat higher than that of the others. I don't know why, since he's technically the youngest, but that's how he's always been portrayed.

[Ana Matic]

This was a wonderful adventure. Who doesn't love the addition of ponies?

I had pegged Rainbow Dash as Ace, but Firefly works just as well.

[Tragicom]

2100606
In my continuity, Romana didn't regenerate. Outside of the change from Mary Tamm to Lalla Ward (both of whom are incredibly skilled actresses), the regeneration meant nothing to the overarching story, and didn't change that much about the character of Romana. Furthermore, her regeneration is one of the most poorly handled scenes in Doctor Who history, as such, in Doctor Whooves Classic, Colgate will not be regenerating at the start of Destiny of the Daleks, should I ever get to it.

[Tragicom]

2269601
Yes. A happy coincidence, though.

[the61scissors]

A nicely done adaptation you've got here. I really liked some of the details that weren't in the original story. However, I wish it wasn't such a straight adaptation. I've yet to check out the other stories, so you may have already done this, but perhaps you could add more original content; diverge from the source material a bit. Still, what we already have is quite good. Keep it up

[Dusty Old Qrow]

2567015 They would have recreated the dead/old actors using CGI. But, alas, the final product sees only Ten and Rose coming back.

[Puzzle Reader]

Incredibly enjoyable!

ON TO THE NEXT STORY.

[Tragicom]

2567220
Glad to have your support. Fixed the grammar problem in later stories. The cutie mark changing between regenerations was not my idea, I cobbled it from LissyStrata on deviantart's Doctor Whooves drawings and thought it made perfect sense. Open Stable is Oppenheimer. And yes, the Brig did slug The Master.

For One I'd recommend:

The Aztecs
The Dalek Invasion of the Earth
The Time Meddler
The Tenth Planet

[Mooncalf]

Ah, The Five Doctors. An awesome and yet horribly written episode. One member of the production team insisted on having cybermen, while the writer absolutely hated cybermen. The compromise? Massive slaughter of cybermen who do nothing productive towards the plot. To say nothing of the bad planning leading to them having to write out the Fourth Doctor. Or the Master's flipflopping across the competence line.

Anyway, enjoyable read, and interesting casting. Twilight makes for a good Sarah Jane, yes.

[Tragicom]

3438735
Not 'reading' as much as respecting.

[Tragicom]

3443914
Exactly, and there were bigger issues at the time.

[Tragicom]

3452439
Yes, but having a bunch of different characters with the same name running around would get really hard to keep track of.

[Tragicom]

3468581
I know of Lungbarrow. The loom nonsense is just weird. I like The Other concept though.

[FiveyWhooves]

I'm liking this! Well, I liked The Five Doctors originally, a pony version just makes life perfect!